iPhone 4S Reviews: "Best iPhone Yet", Great Camera, Siri is "Straight Out of Science Fiction"

11 2
Photo courtesy of TechCrunch

The early iPhone 4S reviews are in. Apple has provided some publications with an early review unit of the iPhone 4S and here are the reviews. We've extracted some of the more interesting points from each review, but you can click each title to read the full writeup.

TechCrunch Review

- "The iPhone 4S blows away the iPhone 4 when it comes to speed."
- "The true killer feature of the device is Siri."
- "The amount of times Siri hasn’t been able to understand and execute my request is astonishingly low. I’ll say something that I’m sure Siri won’t be able to understand, and it gets it."
- You need to be connected to internet for Siri to work.

iph4 scre13 1ThisIsMyNext Review

- "[The iPhone 4S is] easily one of the most capable handsets on the market."
- "The 4S is more than capable of going through a full business day without needing a charge, and if you’re a lighter user, you’ll rarely have to worry about it."
- On Siri, "The software even has a good sense of humor. Asking it “what is the meaning of life?” will bring up a number of responses, both serious and not so serious. The first time I asked, Siri simply said “42.”

AllThingsD Review

- "My advice is that owners of the iPhone 4 needn’t rush to upgrade; they can get the new operating system. But owners of older iPhone models, or those with basic phones, will find this latest iPhone a pleasure and a good value."
- In Washington suburbs, was able to get nearly 7 megabits per second.
- AT&T Model still dropped calls.

NYTimes Review

- "This phone comes dangerously close to displacing a $200 point-and-shoot digital camera."
- "Apple says Siri will improve with time — both because she adapts to you, and because Apple itself will periodically upgrade her brain."

Wired Review

- "Before, with the standard iPhone calendar, I would often forget to add an event because I was too busy to type it, and as a result I would forget I had something scheduled altogether. With Siri and Apple’s new Reminders to-do list app, it’s unlikely I’ll forget anything important again because the process is so effortless.
- "From my experience, talking on an iPhone 4S on AT&T sounds noticeably clearer than it did on past iPhones I’ve owned"
- Several amusing examples of Siri responses including 'I'm Drunk' (Here's a list of cab companies)

Macworld Review

Macworld includes a video showing Siri:

LoopInsight Review

- An amusing exchange with Siri at the top of the review
- A 1080P sample video is included (edited with iMovie on a Mac)
- More praise for Siri: "Siri is not your typical voice recognition technology. You don’t dictate to Siri, you interact and have a conversation with Siri. It’s difficult to explain how good Siri is, but you’ll find out soon enough."

Stephen Fry's review for The Guardian

- "So good is the voice recognition that it is now built into all apps that use a keyboard. For the first time I've found that I can happily and accurately dictate texts and emails."
- "There is an option to enable Photostream, which keeps every picture you take for ever. Be warned. You cannot delete a picture once it is in Photostream. There may well be blushes within families who share devices and discover that a photo they would rather not be seen is permanently on view, but they'll have to learn the hard way."
- "Once again Apple is taking a lead and asking a lot of its competitors. I wish those competitors luck, for the better all smartphones are, the happier I am. If Steve Jobs's true legacy is that the devices every other company makes are so, so much better than they otherwise would have been, I don't think he would mind one bit."

Popular Stories

Tim Cook Rainbow

Apple Event in October? Here's What to Expect

Monday September 29, 2025 9:31 am PDT by
Apple's annual iPhone event is in the rearview mirror, but rumors suggest the company plans to release a handful of additional products before the year ends. Will there be another Apple event this October? We discuss the possibility below. Apple in October Apple's most recent October events were in 2021 and 2023. In 2022 and 2024, Apple did not host an October event. Instead, it...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro teal 1

Apple's iPhone Driver's License Feature Now Available in 11 U.S. States

Tuesday September 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Apple recently revealed that the feature would soon be available in North Dakota, and starting today, the feature has officially gone...
space black mbp

Here's Every New Apple Product That Leaked Yesterday

Wednesday October 1, 2025 8:27 am PDT by
A handful of upcoming Apple products leaked yesterday, through a combination of YouTube videos out of Russia and U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) documents that were released, despite Apple's confidentiality requests. The leaked products include an iPad Pro with an M5 chip, as well as updated MacBook Pro and Apple Vision Pro models. All of these devices had already been rumored...
maxresdefault

New iPad Pro With M5 Chip Leaked in Unboxing Video

Tuesday September 30, 2025 8:39 am PDT by
An apparent unboxing video for an unannounced iPad Pro with the M5 chip was uploaded to YouTube today by Russian channel Wylsacom. The same YouTube account leaked the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip before it was announced by Apple last year, so this is likely a legitimate leak. Based on the box shown in the video, this appears to be a 13-inch iPad Pro with an M5 chip, 256GB of...
fcc vision pro leak

FCC Accidentally Leaks Apple's Next Vision Pro

Tuesday September 30, 2025 3:48 pm PDT by
The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has seemingly confirmed Apple's work on an updated version of the Vision Pro headset. One of several documents the FCC shared today references an Apple-designed "Head Mounted Device" with a model number of A3416. An included image confirms the device is a Vision Pro. The FCC's uploads are transmission tests, SAR test reports, and...
macbook pro prime day 2025

FCC Leaks Upcoming MacBook Pro and More

Tuesday September 30, 2025 1:58 pm PDT by
The United States Federal Communications Commission has confirmed Apple's work on a new version of the MacBook Pro and several other products, leaking details on the devices ahead of launch. The FCC published documents that reference model numbers that do not correspond with existing devices. A3434, for example, references an unreleased MacBook Pro, while other numbers are likely for...
iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday October 1, 2025 1:26 pm PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, and Safari. More features and changes will follow in future versions,...
iPhone 17 vs Air and Pros Feature

New iPhones See 'Stronger Than Expected' Demand With One Exception

Thursday October 2, 2025 7:26 am PDT by
Nearly two weeks after the iPhone 17 series launched, analysts at investment banking firm Morgan Stanley said demand for the devices has been "modestly stronger than we originally expected," based on a combination of extended shipping estimates on Apple's online store and information it gathered from Apple's supply chain. There has been strong early demand for the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro,...
Apple 2025 Thumb 1

Apple's 2025 Product Roadmap: What's Still Coming

Wednesday October 1, 2025 3:56 pm PDT by
Apple's two big yearly events, WWDC and the iPhone launch, are done and over with, but there are still some new products that we're expecting to see before the end of the year. Apple TV The Apple TV hasn't been updated since 2022, so it's due for a refresh. It doesn't look like Apple is going to change the design of its set-top box, but we can expect a faster chip Apple code suggests...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.0.1 With Fixes for Wi-Fi, Cellular, and Camera Issues on iPhone 17 Models

Monday September 29, 2025 10:12 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 26.0.1 and iPadOS 26.0.1, the first updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems that came out earlier this week. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes for the update, iOS 26.0.1 addresses a bug that could cause aberrations in...

Top Rated Comments

FroMann Avatar
182 months ago
One week everyone complains about the 4S being junk, next week people will call it the best phone ever.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
slrandall Avatar
182 months ago
Oh, did Giz not get one? :rolleyes:
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macrumorsuser10 Avatar
182 months ago
Absolutely amazing reviews. The reviewer feedback on Siri is fantastic. It's this type of overall integration (hardware, OS software, OS features like Siri, the wealth of third party applications and peripherals) that Android fanboys just don't understand. They're the ones putting tails and lights on their cars and thinking the specs make it superior to a high-end sedan. They can go f* themselves.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bpeeps Avatar
182 months ago
Want. This week has been the slowest week ever.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iGobbleoff Avatar
182 months ago
And only a couple of weeks ago people were complaining about the specs and threatening to go to Android
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rick snagwell Avatar
182 months ago
Did anyone else notice that when he did the dictation bit in Notepad, on the screen it said 'Iphone Ass" and he didn't mentioned it, but after the camera cuts back to him, he kind of laughs for a second. around 4:16.

dude..ever read the thread before you post? your the 20th to post this...sooo cool OMG
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)